Top Tech Recruiting Scenes on HBO’s Silicon Valley

Top Tech Recruiting Scenes on HBO’s Silicon Valley

As an executive search firm that revels in recruiting technology talent of the highest caliber, we find the HBO TV series Silicon Valley filled with insight and delicious nerd humor. True, we wish the show’s bro-grammer cast featured more female characters, just as we wish the real Silicon Valley featured more diverse senior executives, an issue highlighted with the hashtag #ILookLikeAnEngineer. (For more on diversity, check out our post, Silicon Valley Wants Black Coders. What’s The Issue?) To the show’s credit, it does tackle the woman engineering shortage issue in scenes with the startup’s lone female engineer.

Woman Engineer

Interviews Can Be Awkward

I highly recommend the show to anyone in technology recruiting or to anyone who has lived, breathed, and worked in software at the intersection of venture capital. That pressure cooker attracts brilliant people who are often eccentric or a bit awkward. Some may be Aspies or Autistics, as many in the Autism spectrum prefer to be called. (See our post on Genius Candidates in technology. ) Most of the time, I find the candidate quirks endearing, though at times they present challenges in job interviews.

The Actors Are Nerds in Real Life

The show’s tech dialog and plot come across as believable for a number of reasons — the actors are nerds off the screen, the imaginary formulas have been concocted by serious computer scientists, and well-known technology luminaries put in cameo appearances on the show. The following clip details how committed the show is to making the technology details real.

We Love Silicon Valley Because We Love Tech

The Good Search is a technology search firm for a reason. Passion. Technology luminaries provide an intriguing glimpse into the future because they are the very people shaping it. Since the dot.com bubble, I have recruited senior executives to the hottest startups backed by top-tier venture capital firms that include Kleiner Perkins, Benchmark, and Sequoia.

For the past decade and a half, I have had the good fortune to have mind-blowing conversations with some of the most brilliant technologists of the century. Not everyone gets to do that. Like many of those we recruit, my imagination was captured by my first computer (an Apple IIe). I haven’t looked back since. That is why I look forward to the next episode of HBO’s Silicon Valley. May it live long and prosper.